Magi – 08

Finally, Magi delivers an antagonist that’s not as shallow as the kiddy pool, while also shedding light on Alibaba’s past! All the while, the Kou Empire continues to show more shades of intrigue, indicating that the divide between people like Ryosai and Hakuei is on a national scale. Let’s begin diving in, shall we?

First off, props to Morgiana for setting things straight between Alibaba and Aladdin, despite their initial awkwardness. Although I thought that her bones got crushed in the last episode, she’s still got the willpower to set an obvious wrong right. Like Jafar pointed out, Aladdin is still a child, so betrayal of a promise closely held hits hard…perhaps the hardest he probably can remember. Such feelings were so strong that it literally left him powerless, something Morgiana could relate to well. Although Alibaba was initially apprehensive to reveal details, a death glare from Morgiana spurred answers quickly.

Those answers consequently gave us much insight into Alibaba’s character. While it may be far from Alibaba’s historical basis as a merchant, it was an intriguing story with many implications. Alibaba’s training in the royal style obviously pointed us in the direction of being in contact with royalty, but today was a confirmation of that hunch…and more. It turns out Alibaba is actually a prince and supposedly once set to take up the throne of Balbadd. He does have the makings of a great king–experienced in many walks of life, a sense of justice, cleverness–which makes sense as to why the King of Balbadd preferred him over his supposed sibling, the current King of Balbadd. Let Kassim roll in though…and suddenly any chances of kingship are whisked away out of guilt.

One facet that popped out during this part was the decision of blacking out the King of Balbadd’s face until he confessed his love for Anise to Alibaba on his deathbed. It was a nice way of symbolizing the disconnect Alibaba had with his father up until that point: to him, the king was figure, and never really in a position of fatherhood. This contrasts heavily with the scenes that involved Anise, who in a few short scenes, established herself as a loved figure both by Kassim and Alibaba. Thus, when his face is finally revealed to us after Alibaba’s father shows some humanity, the scene is even more accented. The show did a wonderful job framing Alibaba’s past as a prince, as it flowed well in terms of pace, as well as provided a satisfactory explanation for all of his actions.

Meanwhile, during the same flashback, we see Kassim’s past as a bit darker, but it justifies the actions that he takes in his current state, making him an antagonist with empathetic qualities–a first for Magi! Man, does Kassim’s father act like your stereotypical drunk. It sucks that Kassim had to grow up defending himself and his sister from that sort of environment, but it is nice that he did get to have a sense of family as Anise took both him and his sister in, even for a little while. However, this darker past does explain Kassim’s hardened atmosphere, first during Anise’s death, but also his jadedness when threatening and robbing the rich. Life in Balbadd wasn’t kind to him, and as such, he is not kind to the city either. While Kassim’s intentions look to be straightforward–vengeance with “helping the poor” as a fringe benefit–I have to repeat that this is a big step in terms of antagonists. Magi’s conflicts are becoming less clear-cut in how they should be resolved, as each antagonist continues to have more empathetic and justified reasons for acting contrary to the forces of “good”, so to speak. The Kou Empire is looking to be a major antagonist of this fashion: while some members of the royal family may have good intentions, others, especially those with jurisdiction over matters of Balbadd, may share darker intentions, like those shared by the ominous Judal. Darn paper money, ruining all our economies!

In closing, a great episode to kick things into high gear, as we will most likely see the fate of Kassim’s Fog Troupe in the next few episodes. Alibaba, go forth and set things right in your home city, so that your adventures may continue!

I smiled when paper money was showed as something which should not be trusted (as it can easily lose its value).
On another note, I believe it’s more accurate to write “Cassim” instead of “Kassim”, because it’s an arabic name which begins with a letter that is non-existent in japanese and latin alphabet. The team which scanlated the manga did this at some point.

She even managed to tame Kassim’s wild attitude in the flash back too. That’s one amazing hooker right there. Being brought up by a mother like that really shows on Alibaba’s difference with Kassim as kids.

These days I read Magi and truly enjoyed. I don’t knew that a fighting shounen could be so deep and clever, morally provocative.
But then I watch the anime… one episode was enough. Was really necessary rush in that way in the story? Even changing some very specific details? Instant Droped! But I’m a bit curious to know if the quality will increase. This arc will prove if Magi Anime is good or not, what we’ll see here is somewhat “Occupy Balbadd”, and then the series begins to introduce a lot in his world, various metaphors well elaborated about the history of our world. This is something we don’t see often in animes, hope that A1 don’t drop the ball.

Kassim’s past… Alibaba’s mother took him and his sister in. When she passed, Kassim took the “leadership” role.
When it was discovered that Alibaba was the son of the king, why didn’t Alibaba take his siblings to the palace with him?

One child grows up to be
Somebody that just loves to learn yeah
Another child grows up to be
Somebody we just love to burn — Family Affair Sly & the Family Stone

I think we’re going to see that Kassim’s darkness and reasons for his actions runs a lot deeper in the next episode(s).

So we know Kassim is going to try to get Alibaba back next week. It’ll be interesting to see how that all plays out.

I still believe Morgiana is portrayed as having an unusual amount of strength for her size and background. It’s one thing
to leap like that by yourself, but carrying another person is some feat of strength, much much more than the other
characters around her. IMHO, there’s still a mystery that surrounds her.

While it’s clear (to me by the OP) that Alibaba will still journey with Aladdin and Morgiana, I think we’re going to see
Sinbad man-up in his leadership role, too. How all of that happens is worth the wait for the next episode.

Sorry but being arab myself, I can assure you there is no “Kassim” with the first letter pronounced “K” in arabic. I see nothing wrong with what I wrote before. Go to Ali Baba’s page in wikipedia and you will see that he has a brother named Cassim with C.
This is a trivial matter and I don’t want it to become a dispute.

This is really getting on my nerve. Every time something like this happen. They nvr want to share what went wrong right away, have to keep someone that trust you so much guessing like a idiot. So annoying. Make me want to punch Alibaba in the face. And scream: ” TELL ME WHAT HAPPEN, TELL ME!”
Unfortunately, this is how drama goes, so I have to suck it all up and watch on.

Your right, the “Anime” set the Rules. They might used some Arabic “Background” Graphics. But that dosent mean, they talk in “Arabic” or know the “Koran” or else. This is a Anime World. Lose build on Names that we know of “Arabic” tales (Alibaba and the 40 Thiefs. Sinbad the Sailor, Jafar Disney? and so on)

So, let the “Real World” Laws out of this Anime World (Even the World map is lose based on ours)

Actually it’s more about the fansubbers than it is about the anime itself since we are talking about how Kassim is written in English … fact is .. i’m speak arbic (I’m from Egypt) and i can tell you that all Arabic speaking people write the name Kassim with a “K” not Cassim with a “C” when they write it in English

According to the world setting in Magi, “something happened” which caused everyone to speak the same language(even though written may be different). The only ‘foreign language’ in Magi is the Toran language.

There was a part in the last episode, right as Aladdin, Morgiana, and Sinbad arrive at Balbadd, where Sinbad focuses on a merchant counting money. I didn’t understand the significance until this episode.

He must have noticed the fact that the money was not local, and not usual to what merchant’s tend to trade with. He probably already suspected something else was going on beyond the Fog Troupe before he even spoke to Balbadd’s leader.

Mor and Alibaba’s interactions were really hilarious this episode, it seems Mor is finally starting to make connections with other people as friends she really cares about and looks out for, the way Aladdin reacted to Alibaba breaking his promise was really touching and the awkwardness between them when Mor reunited them was really well done … Mor is also starting to reap the benefits of being a Fanalis who can make people do their bidding by making scary faces and crushing the floor under their feet .. that’s definitely a useful perk in convincing people of doing what you want XD

I was also surprised after learning about what Kassim did to Alibaba (burned the palace, stole the royal treasure, knocked Alibaba and left him to die in the middle of the burning palace and probably also killed the previous king -Alibaba’s father- indirectly becasue of the fire) yet Alibaba just returns to him casually as if nothing happened in the past !!!

I guess next episode will resolve the Alibaba/Kassim relation .. and it seems Sindbad will have a hand in that.

I think this arc might take the rest of the episodes. XD i read somewhere that the anime would end at its conclusion but it’s also pretty long.
It’s a really important arc so I hope they don’t rush it.

aladdin to me is a very realistic potrayal of a child character, he’s a nice enough kid but he’s still a kid he get upset, he gets angry and depressed ya know things normal kids would go through at that age. Unlike another iconic kid character in recent years who has the personality of paint.

this was the first anime where I saw my name used :p too bad I’ve yet to know more about the story in the next episode :p the name ‘kassim’ or ‘cassim’ cannot be spelt in english because the letter is inexistent in the english language, so the use of ‘K’ and ‘C’ is not a problem. Maybe someone read ‘cassim’ somewhere, but the name is widely used in the arab region, and it is more commonly spelt as ‘kassim’ on passpourts, some of them use ‘qassim’ :p So i hope this lesson was helpful!

Oh gosh few more days, I can’t wait :) I love Ali baba and Alaadin most, not so intersted in Morgiana as much as both of those >_<;! poor Alibaba has an ugly bro kinda xD…..